A former supervisor of the Marine Corps brig that housed an Army private charged with sending U.S. secrets to the WikiLeaks website denied that he was being homophobic when he called Bradley Manning’s underwear “panties”…

Marine Corps Master Sgt. Brian Papakie testified as a prosecution witness on the seventh day of a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade. The hearing is to determine whether the nine months Manning spent in Marine Corps custody in Quantico, Va., amounts to illegal pretrial punishment. The military contends Manning had to be confined to his 8-by-6-foot cell at least 23 hours a day, sometimes without clothing, to prevent him from hurting or killing himself during his confinement from July 2010 to April 2011.

Papakie testified on cross-examination about a memo he wrote after the brig commander ordered Manning stripped of his underwear each night starting March 2, 2011. Manning stood naked at attention for a prisoner count the next morning, causing a stir that prompted Papakie to write an email to ensure it didn’t happen again.

“Make sure he is not standing at attention naked for evening count right before taps. You should be taking his panties right before he lays down,” Papakie wrote.

Papakie testified that he uses the word interchangeably with “skivvies” and “underwear” when discussing men’s underwear.

“I’ve always used the phrase, ‘Don’t get my panties in a bunch,’ which is what I tell the staff all the time,” he said.

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